White Boards and Magic Markers

'Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.' - Peter F. Drucker. <br>

The Director of Engineering of the Small to Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) realised he had a problem on his hands. For while the Engineering Department, the Marketing Department, the Sales Department and the Manufacturing Department had all been equipped with the latest state-of-the-art computer systems, none of them were talking to each other.

And because all of the 'processes' within the company weren't integrated, delays were occurring on an hourly basis. There were delays in taking orders, delays in processing orders, delays in manufacturing and delays shipping the product once it had been built.

The only place there were no delays was the accounts department. That's because they were 'under the gun' to recover as much money as possible from the company's customers to offset the ineptitude of the other departments.

So the Director of Engineering called the chaps from the Big Software Company to see if they could help. And it didn't take them five minutes to see just what was going wrong and to propose a solution. It was obvious. The SME needed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system - software that would pull together all facets of the business - manufacturing, sales, and marketing.

The Director of Engineering fell in love with the proposal. Although it would cost some £40,000, it would clean up the communications mess at the SME once and for all and bring them right into the Twenty-First Century.

Unbeknown to the Director of Engineering, however, his Director of Marketing was in a meeting of his own with a well-known consultant from Peckham. The consultant had also recognised that there was a communication problem between the various departments, but his solution to the problem was a lot simpler and a lot less expensive - £20,000 of consulting time and £2000 worth of White Boards and Magic Markers.

That's right. White Boards and Magic Markers. Each morning, noon and night, an elected individual from each department would chart the efficiency of the same on a White Board. In that way, each department would be able to 'visualise' its own efficiency and that of any other department. It would then become obvious where the problems lay and then someone would be able to do something about it.

The two 'solutions' were duly presented to the CEO of the company who, armed with a major in business administration and a minor in common sense, opted for the obvious solution.

After six months and £22,000 later, things haven't changed at the SME at all, I'm afraid to say. There are still delays and the various departments still aren't talking to each other. But at least now all the departments can see just how badly they are doing simply by looking at each other's White Boards. Although they still haven't decided how to fix the problems that are now so obvious to everyone.

For his part, the Director of Engineering has left the SME and moved to San Luis Obispo where he is now responsible for defining the next generation of ERP software for the Big Software Company. The Director of Marketing, on the other hand, has stayed put and found a new role as the Director of Human Resources. The decisive CEO has hired the consultant from Peckham on a part-time basis for £40,000 a year.